"I know a guy. Tony."
Jan. 27th, 2024 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI've written recently about making games roleplaying games like D&D more exciting for everyone by asking "What's this game about?" and then simplifying or eliminating bookkeeping tasks like counting encumbrance. Bookkeeping is almost certainly not what any game is about!
Tracking the weight each character is carrying and looking up its impact on their movement rate is definitely one of those high effort, low reward, bookkeep-y type tasks. Another is figuring out how the characters turn loot they've found in an adventure into cash they can use. A sack of silver coins found while raiding a bandits' lair is easy to spend... but what about the nice mail shirt one of them was wearing, the fancy rapier another had, and the set of jeweled drinking cups they had?
One solution, often the default one, is the players try roleplaying bargaining with various merchants to get the best possible prices. That's a time sink because as much as tracking encumbrance is not what the game is about, haggling with merchants over the value of a slightly scratched suit of armor is also almost certainly not what the game is about!
A better solution is to meta-game the trading. The GM can replace all the role-play haggling with having the players make an appropriate skill roll and telling them what they get. That makes it more of a question like, "Can I jump over this crevice in the rocks?" Roll the dice, get the answer, move on to the next challenge.
The thing is, trading takes time. Especially when there's a lot of loot, selling it takes more time that backing up a few steps to get a running start to leap over hole in the ground. That was the challenge in my D&D game last week. The characters had a lot of loot they wanted/needed to sell but they were strapped for time. Oh, and none of them actually have skill in trading. The players recognized they'd spend a lot of time on the effort and still not get great results.
"I'll bet we know someone who could help us," Hawk suggested. Her character, Astrin the paladin, is a social networker in town. It was an excellent idea— though Astrin was not the one who had the best contact.
This is where I passed a note to Bobbi, playing the prissy, nobly born mage, Meraxes:
Bobbi read the note, nodded in amusement, and in a classic Brooklyn accent— exactly the effect I was hoping for— said, "I know a guy. Tony."
Once again my technique of passing clue-notes worked beautifully. Bobbi offered the solution in-character as Meraxes, in her own voice (albeit suddenly with a Brooklyn accent 😂) instead of me proposing it directly as the GM. Otonio took a cut of the money, strengthening the group's relationship with him as an NPC, and even after his cut the group netted more than they would doing it on their own. Oh, and while Otonio was busy for a week haggling for the best prices, the group spent their week (and more) training up to the next level and resupplying to head back out to The City of the Dead.
It was a win-win-win. I hope they gave Otonio 5 stars on NPCer!
Tracking the weight each character is carrying and looking up its impact on their movement rate is definitely one of those high effort, low reward, bookkeep-y type tasks. Another is figuring out how the characters turn loot they've found in an adventure into cash they can use. A sack of silver coins found while raiding a bandits' lair is easy to spend... but what about the nice mail shirt one of them was wearing, the fancy rapier another had, and the set of jeweled drinking cups they had?
One solution, often the default one, is the players try roleplaying bargaining with various merchants to get the best possible prices. That's a time sink because as much as tracking encumbrance is not what the game is about, haggling with merchants over the value of a slightly scratched suit of armor is also almost certainly not what the game is about!
A better solution is to meta-game the trading. The GM can replace all the role-play haggling with having the players make an appropriate skill roll and telling them what they get. That makes it more of a question like, "Can I jump over this crevice in the rocks?" Roll the dice, get the answer, move on to the next challenge.
The thing is, trading takes time. Especially when there's a lot of loot, selling it takes more time that backing up a few steps to get a running start to leap over hole in the ground. That was the challenge in my D&D game last week. The characters had a lot of loot they wanted/needed to sell but they were strapped for time. Oh, and none of them actually have skill in trading. The players recognized they'd spend a lot of time on the effort and still not get great results.
"I'll bet we know someone who could help us," Hawk suggested. Her character, Astrin the paladin, is a social networker in town. It was an excellent idea— though Astrin was not the one who had the best contact.
This is where I passed a note to Bobbi, playing the prissy, nobly born mage, Meraxes:
“I know a guy. Tony.”
Selling all this gear— suits of armor, weapons, etc.— for a good price will take time. And it’s totally not your forte. But you know a guy… Tony! Actually his name is Otonio (Tony is his family nickname) and he’s your little brother or cousin. While you went to fancy-pants mage school he apprenticed to Uncle Kenji’s younger brother, Keyevan, a respected trader. Give him an agent’s cut of the sales and it’ll be a win-win.
Selling all this gear— suits of armor, weapons, etc.— for a good price will take time. And it’s totally not your forte. But you know a guy… Tony! Actually his name is Otonio (Tony is his family nickname) and he’s your little brother or cousin. While you went to fancy-pants mage school he apprenticed to Uncle Kenji’s younger brother, Keyevan, a respected trader. Give him an agent’s cut of the sales and it’ll be a win-win.
Bobbi read the note, nodded in amusement, and in a classic Brooklyn accent— exactly the effect I was hoping for— said, "I know a guy. Tony."
Once again my technique of passing clue-notes worked beautifully. Bobbi offered the solution in-character as Meraxes, in her own voice (albeit suddenly with a Brooklyn accent 😂) instead of me proposing it directly as the GM. Otonio took a cut of the money, strengthening the group's relationship with him as an NPC, and even after his cut the group netted more than they would doing it on their own. Oh, and while Otonio was busy for a week haggling for the best prices, the group spent their week (and more) training up to the next level and resupplying to head back out to The City of the Dead.
It was a win-win-win. I hope they gave Otonio 5 stars on NPCer!
